Every Little Thing

Our house is STILL for sale.

BOO.

But that's ok.  We know our house is perfect for someone, and they will find us soon enough.

Until then, there are a few things we need that we really don't want to buy until we move.  Like a new refrigerator, furniture, TV, washer & dryer, etc.  Especially since our laundry area is outside.  No way am I buying a new washer & dryer and putting it outside in the garage.

Well, our washer has seen better days.  We have to manually start the spin cycle.

What does that mean?

Well, I lift the lid, put my right pinky finger in the little hole that makes it go, then with my other arm, I reach in and grab the side and literally spin it until it gets going.  Then I take my pinky finger out and close the lid really fast.

Every time.

It's ridiculous.

Which is why our house needs to sell NOW.  We've just been praying the thing will keep working until we move.

So a couple days ago my sis (who just moved into her newly built beautiful house! yay!) called me and said, "Hey, we're about to get rid of our washer & dryer b/c it's just sitting at the house we just moved out of and wanted to see if you wanted it first."

I told her, "No thanks, I think we'll just wait it out and maybe ours will last until we sell the house."  No need in ruining a perfectly good washer by putting it outside ya know.

So last night we're swimming around in laundry, and it happened.  The spinner wouldn't spin.  It just refused.  As if to say, "I'm tired of you handling me, let me just die".

:(

So I called her back today to see if they still had it and they did!

And wanted to GIVE it to us.

Later today, I found out that it was only 2 years old, and when I saw it, realized it's about TWICE as big as our old one!

God took care of us before we even needed it, and it was bigger & better!

And FREE!

He loves me.

And this makes me happy. :)

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If I could lasso the moon...

The moon was absolutely beautiful last night.  I pointed it out to Lena as we were on our way to church.  It went a little something like this:


Hey Lena, look at the moon! Do you see it? Isn't it so pretty?


Uhuh, see it, moon! 


...chuch it, Mama, chuch it?


(heart swelling) No, baby, we can't touch it.  It's too far.


Fwy, Mama, Fwy? Chuch it?


Maybe one day, baby. Maybe one day we can fly to the moon and touch it.

If I could lasso that moon, it would be in serious trouble right now!

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Shut up 63!!!!

 Well, I didn't throw up!

My sis ran with me too!

I don't remember ever being that nervous about anything.  It was truly out of character for me.

 

I smiled and laughed a lot.  Awkwardly.  It took me a good 10 minutes to get my number pinned on my shirt.  I couldn't figure out what I wanted to listen to on my run, because I forgot to sync my Twilight music before I left home.  I mean, what else would I listen to on a Twilight 10K run? 

I think just the preparation leading up to this one event was what did it.  Also, I had never actually run the entire distance without stopping before, so I wasn't sure that I could do it.

There were 503 runners

It took a while for us to cross the start line. We were kinda in the middle

This is me parking my gum & pretending not to see the camera guy

This is Malissa cheezin' for the camera guy

The finish line! I took my earbuds out so I could hear my family cheering for me the crickets

Eli sees me. :)

Missing it guys!

Seriously, not stopping!

I felt like a million bucks after this run! Which was surprising, because I just knew I'd be ready to collapse.  Total rush crossing that finish line!

Wait, what?!


Perhaps I was moving too fast.

I wanna do that again! Immediately!

This is so much fun! (Um, check my calves)

This was such an exciting day for me! The trail was absolutely breathtaking, and the Christmas lights were awesome.  I can't wait to run this one again!

Approaching!

Winning!

Woohoo!!!

Disregard the old guy, notice the love in the background

We did it!

My friends and family really made this day special for me.

My mom and dad came up to watch, and my sweet friends were so great to send me messages saying they were praying for a great run and then excited congrats after.  

Including one ecstatic phone call from my friend Anna, who I thought would burst from excitement for me over the phone.

And texts like this:

Shut up 63!!!! I am so 

super proud of you!!!!! For

real. Like seriously!!!! No 

kidding!!!! Yay yay yay yay

Made my day.  God has truly blessed me with more love and support than I could ever dream of!

Oh, and not that it matters, but here are my results!

Official time: 1:03:37

Placed 235 overall (out of 503)

Placed 16 in my age group (out of 50!)

Not bad for my first 10K!

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Say What

Tomorrow is the big day.

No, not the Alabama/LSU game.  Although I am excited to see it.


Tomorrow is this...

And I am running it.

I saw this a couple months ago and decided I needed a REAL goal to get myself into shape.  One that I couldn't back out of easily.  So I signed up and paid before I had a chance to change my mind.  At the time, I could barely run 3 minutes.

But I've been training.  And now I'm prepared.  My goals are very simple:

1.  To finish before the Jolly Trolley sags to pick up last participants.
2.  To finish in less than 70 minutes.

Before today, I have been super excited about this.

Now I just wanna throw up.

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Grateful

Some days, like today, I realize how much EASIER it would be for me to send my kids to school and go to work.  But then I realize that it's not about me...

It's all about them.  Homeschooling is both a sacrifice and a gift.  But it is worth it ALL.  What a gift God has given me!  I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a homeschool mom!

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Number One

Today was a great day.

Firstly, I had a Thirty-One Gifts open house at my home and it went really well! No thanks to my friends though! (You know who you are) I can't believe y'all didn't at least come eat a cupcake. You had 4 hours to do this. Gah.

But my sweet family came and a few friends, past hostesses, and customers too!

It was really exciting getting to show off all my new Thirty-One stuff.  I had the most fun setting everything up and preparing the food.  It's been a really long time since I was the hostess, and I didn't realize until today how much I have missed it!  So, I will be doing this again.  Hopefully soon.

Secondly, I realized why I will continue to be a part of Thirty-One Gifts for a very long time.

Let me tell you about two of my guests that came today.  They are the mother and sister of a very courageous woman who is currently in the process of adopting a child from China.  She is a hard working single mother and she is doing everything in her power to get to her daughter in China.  In case you didn't know, it costs A LOT of money to do this.  Her mother recently had a Thirty-One party as a fundraiser to help.

Yesterday, I was able to write out and hand this lady a check for an amount I wouldn't have been able to just give out of my pocket at the moment.  Because of Thirty-One.  When I delivered the order to her mother, I invited her to my open house so she could come see the new products.  She and her other daughter from out of town came by and the daughter was telling me how grateful she was that I had helped her sister out by doing the fundraiser for her.

But I'm the grateful one.  This adopting business is so much greater than any of us realize, and I got to be a very small part of that process for this family.

I hope I get the opportunity to do this again and again.

Sometimes I feel like I don't have what I want to give, but God has given me this WAY of giving that I would have never thought of on my own.  He always makes a way.  When it seems like there is no way, He just makes one.  I am so thankful that I have found this company.  Because of Thirty-One, I have been able to give in so many ways that I couldn't have otherwise.

There are so many reasons I love Thirty-One, but this has to be the NUMBER ONE reason.

Giving freely.  There is just nothing more rewarding than that.

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I might be famous soon...

So I'm in the truck at a red light today, kids in the back, just singing to the music like always, and I'm pretty sure some people from Texas got it on video.  Yeah...  Ok, first of all, I don't look at people in the car next to me at red lights (or pretty much anyone in any vehicle on the road period).  Secondly, I especially don't look at them if I feel like they're looking at me (because that's just awkward).  SO, I felt like someone was looking in my direction but there's no WAY I was looking over there to see because that would be weird.  So I just ignored them.  I figured they probably weren't really looking right at me anyway.  Well, as they passed me, the dude driving is practically hanging out the window with his camera or phone or whatever.  And they were laughing.  Like hysterically.  Like they just got the funniest video footage EVER.  I mean, I know I'm entertaining and all, but REALLY?  I wasn't even singing with motions or anything.  Definitely not even YouTube worthy (I hope).  They must've been on the road for A WHILE.  

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Why Do You Worship?

Today, Daniel Eric Groves ministered at our church.  He shared some of the amazing things that God has done for him and his family.  The reasons why he worships.  Then he asked the question, "Why do you worship?".  Worship is real when you have a reason.  If you worship just because you're supposed to, there's no freedom in that. You're just going through the motions.  I don't wanna go through the motions...

I worship because I have a born again, spirit-filled husband, who loves God (and me) with all of his heart, and chooses every single day to sacrifice his life for his family just because he loves us.

I worship because I have 3 beautiful, healthy, obedient children who are following Jesus.

I worship because God continues to amaze us time and time again with His loving provision. His way-making, when there seems to be absolutely NO way.

I worship because Jesus has set me free from sin and the guilt that comes along with the regret of that sin.

I worship because my family is restored and free from addiction.

I worship because I know there is more restoration and freedom to come.

I worship because salvation is spreading like wildfire in our youth group!

I worship because of my God given friends that still love me and don't judge me, even when I don't deserve their love, mercy, and forgiveness.

I worship because of God's mercy in my life every single day.

I worship because even when I've been hurt, God shows me how to change me and become stronger still.

I worship because God loves me, and I don't deserve it.

There are not enough words to express how thankful I am for God's goodness in my life.  I'm so glad I have worship to do that!  Worship is one of the single most important things I have to express my love and thankfulness to God.  He really is SO GOOD to me.

Why do you worship?

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My Assignments

 Homeschooling is the best decision I have ever made for my kids.  Yes, we have challenges.  Daily.  But I believe these are the types of challenges that will make us stronger as a family.  I found myself wishing for a break today, and I realized that I don't really want a break.  What I want is to overcome these challenges and see my relationship with my children become stronger than it ever could have been otherwise.

Jessi has been having a hard time focusing on her schoolwork.  It's really more of a "I don't want to do any work, anywhere, period" type of thing, along with an "I'm 8 years old going on 13" type of thing.  You mix those two together with my Jessi and you've got MAJOR DRAMA.  I also believe she's fighting for attention in this crazy household.  I think she'll take any kind of attention she can get at this point, even if it means a fight with her mommy.

But I'm ready for this fight.  I want her to know that I'm not going to give up on her and let her have her way.  I'm not going to stop helping her understand all the whys of what she's feeling and what she's going through.  Sometimes she feels like I don't understand and I'm so glad that I have the opportunity to walk her through these precious years myself and that I have this precious time to spend with her that will all too quickly be gone forever.  I can't imagine trying to teach her and guide her through these years if I only had a few hours before dinner and the weekends to spend with her like I would if she were going to school elsewhere.

For me, being a mother is so much more than cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and driving people around.  It's about teaching them how to live and how to learn in every area of life.  It's about teaching.  I am so thankful that God has provided an opportunity for me to teach my children all day long, every single day.

I believe my children are receiving the absolute best education possible.  I always know every area they are struggling with, so I can help them through it.  And they never get left behind when they don't understand something.  I love the fact that we can focus on those things more, and breeze through the things they understand already with ease.  And who better to do that than their mother, the one who knows their strengths and weaknesses the very best?  There is no one on earth more equipped to teach my kids than me.  I believe God assigned my children to me for a special reason, and I am graced by Him to teach them the way they learn best.

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WHY???

I felt the need to share this, but also felt it might be too much for some of my Facebook friends to handle.  They can click over at their own risk.

So this morning I was awakened to a laughing baby girl who had not only performed a #2 in her diaper, and not only took the diaper off, but also chucked it outside her crib because obviously that doesn't belong in there.  Oh, and this was after it got smudged all over the sheets, bed, bumper pad, and herself.  GOOD MORNING MOMMY!

Also, my eldest child woke up complaining that her foot was hurting so bad that she couldn't even walk. Then shortly after I mentioned that we probably shouldn't go to the park today since she couldn't walk, she said, "My foot has healed up to the point that I can walk on it, and the faster I walk, the less it hurts.  It's really just when I stand still that it hurts the most."

Mhm.

This will be a 3 cups of coffee day for sure. (maybe more)

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Thoughts Collected

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but lately it seems my thoughts have been very uncollected.  By that I mean, just randomly floating circling darting around in my head.  There's been SO much going on with me and around me it's been very difficult to just focus.  Today is the first day I've had a glimmer of focus in months.  And until today, I couldn't figure it out.  Here's why.  You ready?  It's a MAJOR revelation.

I've been sleeping in.

As a homeschooling mother of 3 children with 2 additional at home jobs (not to mention youth pastor's wife), this is NOT OK.  I need my rest, but I need my QUIET time with my Lord even more.  I've been in the Word and praying, but in spurts during my day, if my day doesn't get completely turned upside down, which happens pretty often.  I know better than this, and the Lord has been dealing with me about it for a while.  I've just been putting Him off.  It's so easy to just roll over and snuggle up in those warm blankets in the morning.

Last week I was very sick, and this week I've been recovering.  My husband has been so great, taking care of EVERYTHING.  But for the past couple weeks I haven't spent any quiet time with him.  Sure, we've talked, communicated the necessities to each other and stuff, but I realized yesterday just how much I missed spending quality time with him.  There's been plenty of quantity, but not much quality.  And I realized that's EXACTLY how I feel about my time with the Lord.  Quantity just isn't going to cut it for me.  I NEED quality time.  Quiet time.  Intimate time.  And that's just not happening when the kids are up.

I got up at 6:30 this morning and got a little bit of quiet time.  It should have been about an hour, but of course the first day I get up early is the first day in months my kids have awakened before 7:30.  But that's ok, I'm believing for them to sleep later tomorrow (and every day after that).

That hour of sleep just isn't worth the uncollected thoughts and the missing Him.  Today has been a very busy day with lots of things on my to do list (including paying 178.50 for a speeding ticket I got a couple months ago for putting the pedal to tha metal at a whopping 35mph. yep), but it has been one of the best days I've had in months.  I feel very focused, and very collected.  I'm not saying my days still don't get turned upside down, but when I give God the first part of my day, He helps me with the rest.

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Did that really just happen?

This Christmas Day started off really great.  And it ended even better.

First of all, Lena was hilarious the whole day.  She loved everything.  Our Christmas morning starts off by the kids coming into our room and climbing up into our bed to empty the stockings that we leave filled by their beds.  This is my absolute favorite part of the morning.  Lena was so cute sticking her entire arm down into that big stocking to get out her stuff.  She was so excited.  There's just nothing like watching a baby's first real Christmas when their little faces light up from excitement because they have no idea what's going on but they know they like it.  I'm sad that part is over now.

Then we all run into the living room to see what Santa (they know it's us) left and to open gifts.  Fun stuff, yada yada yada.

Then we all get dressed and ready for the day and head to Mimi's house in Headland for breakfast.  Only this year we had to move it across the street to Jason's sister's house because his other sister (who lives at Mimi's) was sick. :(

Then we head to Grandnonna's house for lunch.

So we're opening presents at my mom's and we always go youngest to oldest.  We start opening the ones from my sister, bro-in-law and niece, and I notice the gifts are a little...well...not the usual gifts they like to give.  I know that this has been a really great year for them financially, and I'm noticing that these gifts are like $10 or less...maybe.  At first when the kids were opening, I just thought that maybe they were trying to be nice and get us inexpensive gifts so we wouldn't feel bad for not getting them really expensive ones, but by the time it got around to my mom (remember, youngest to oldest) I realized that we're all getting these really janky tools.

Ok, before it sounds like I'm being ungrateful, please realize this is not something that bothered me, but just something that I noticed.  So they "forgot" they had another bag of gifts in the car after all the opening was done and they brought it in and passed out one more box for everyone to open.  They said we all (me, Jason, Jessi, Eli, my mom, my dad, and my brother) had to open at the same time.  I'm thinking, aw how sweet, they got us all something really nice like a gift card or cash, what a smooth little trick with the janky tools.  Nuh-uh...

WE ALL GOT 2 DAY PARKHOPPER PASSES TO DISNEYWORLD.

WOW.

I couldn't help but immediately remember the list that Jason and I made and prayed over about a year ago of things that we are believing God for.  Glory be to God, we have been able to scratch off many of the things on that list this year.  Today we got to scratch off a big one.  Disneyworld.  We actually had some extra money come into our hands this month and we immediately talked about using it for Disney, but we prayed about it and really felt the Lord showing us something different we needed to do with it.  We knew the most important thing was to obey God and trust that He would take care of Disneyworld for us at the right time.

We got in the truck to come home and I just looked at Jason and said, "Did that really just happen?"  It still feels like a dream.  I'm so thankful for God's goodness and His love for us!

Thank you Scott, Sandy, and Lauren!  We're all goin' to Disney!!!

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Bella

So, I know this is probably wrong, but I can't help it...

Lena Isabella Cullen Sanders

So I found this picture just now, and I'm wondering if you can add redeye...

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Every Girl Needs a Pony

So today was crazy. I don't know if it was me or just a weird day for my kids, but there was yelling. I'm just gonna be honest. It took all of the Jesus in me not to pick up J & E by the throat. I didn't. Just had thoughts of it. Thankfully my hubby came home early and I was able to get away to run a few errands.

One of my errands involved a situation in which my insurance company almost cost me over $500. Wanna hear about it? If not, just skip down to the paragraph before the picture.  But I'll try to make it short. A few weeks ago we were at Kohls and Eli slung the door open to get out, like I've said a million times NOT to do, and hit the brand new red cadillac mini suv next to us. No dent, but about an inch long deep scratch. It definitely took the paint off. I had to leave a note.

Well, she called me up and said her hubby looked at it and they were going to need it fixed. Ok, no problem. I told her to take it to a repair shop owned by a friend of my family and she did. She called me and told me the amount and it was something over $500. So, I called my insurance company and they said an adjuster would be calling me to get some info. So this lady calls from the insurance company, but didn't seem to be an adjuster. She asked me a few questions about the incident, asked me who to make the check to and where to send it, then asked for the lady's phone number who needed the repair. I answered her questions and told her to make the check out to the repair shop and send it straight to them. She said no problem and there was nothing further for me to do. Awesome. Taken care of.

So this morning the repair shop calls me up and says the job is done and asked me what I wanted to do about the payment. I told them the insurance company was sending them a check and gave them the phone number to call the insurance company to find out what the deal was. They called me back and said the insurance company said they mailed the check directly to me on Monday the 28th. That was 4 days ago. I hadn't checked my mail in a couple days so I figured it was in the mailbox and since I knew the repair shop people personally, I asked them to go ahead and let them be on their way with their vehicle and that if I didn't have the check I would just pay them myself and deposit the check when I got it. No biggie.

Something just didn't seem right though. I called my insurance company myself and they said they would check and call me back. So I get to the repair shop to write them a check and I'm chatting with them about how weird this all is. They told me the guy that picked up the car/truck/whatever had his checkbook in hand when he came to get it. Interesting. They of course told him I was taking care of it since they had already spoken to me and knew the situation, so he put his checkbook away and left. Well while I'm sitting there talking with them about all of this, my insurance company calls me and it just so happens that they sent the check TO THE LADY WHOSE CAR IS BEING REPAIRED.

MHM.

My repair shop friends told me not to worry, and they would just wait to hear from me while I got it all straightened out. Thank God for favor. I called the lady up and left her a detailed message to call me back. She called me about 5 minutes later and said that she already received the check and she thought it was weird that the repair shop told her it was taken care of.  So they knew they had the check before they picked up the car.

NO FURTHER COMMENT ON THIS LADY FROM ME.

I am however very unhappy with my insurance company. Am I not the customer here? Did I not tell them where to send the check? And if they decided they needed to send it elsewhere shouldn't they have called me to let me know?

That was way long and the END of that story.  I'm not talking about it anymore because it stresses me out.

At this point I still had several more errands to run, but the hubby called and said he had to go back to work, so I had to stop and go straight home. He got home around 6ish, so I finally got to go finish my errands.  Enough business talk.  LOOK what we got Lena for Christmas! She's gonna LOVE THIS!

All the while still thinking almost every moment of my friends in China.  I can't wait to see Lily!

And I'll end on that note. 

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First Time for Everything!

Ok, so we're having Thanksgiving at my home, which I am VERY excited about! I absolutely LOVE being the hostess of any event! I can't really explain why, but it just makes me happy. Mama is coming over in the morning to cook with me and Jason. I'm SO ready! My Granny always made such a big deal about Thanksgiving. We were always in the kitchen with her from early in the morning until about noon when everything finally came together and was ready to serve. I will never have a single Thanksgiving that I do not think of her. She's why I love this holiday SO MUCH!

So I'm preparing for all the cooking that's taking place in my kitchen tomorrow, and that starts tonight with brining my turkey. I was so excited to see that our new Publix carries fresh turkeys! Yay! I've been waiting for this moment ALL DAY! So I open up this guy and prepare to take out the innards in the cute little baggie they always come in, and LO, NO BAGGIE. Gross. WHAT am I supposed to do??? I certainly am NOT sticking my hand in there. Oh. My. Goodness. This fresh turkey has fresh innards. EWWWWWWWW!

I know that maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but EWWWWWWW! Gag reflex is definitely kicking in. I call for Jason to come hand me a spoon so I at least can scoop out whatever is left in there after I pulled out something unrecognizable and gross. I hate this kind of stuff. The excitement over the fresh turkey and the brining is GONE. But I did it. I got them all out. I think. I HOPE. Now, for the brining! Maybe I'll be over the trauma by the morning.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

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To All My Following Friends:

Ok, so here's the deal-e-o. I had a major crash with my blog last week and so, at a complete loss for how to fix it all, I just created another blog, kendalljo. I eventually figured it all out (with some help), but I ended up with 2 blogs and just couldn't decide which one I liked. I changed the url for The Proper Pinky to theproperpinky.blogspot instead of kendalljo.blogspot, but then that was confusing and I lost several subscribers. I actually like kendalljo better, so I changed the url back and deleted the new blog.

The bottom line is, everything is exactly the same as it was before, except I changed The Proper Pinky name to kendalljo. So I hope this actually puts things back to normal. Sorry for the confusion everyone! Thanks for sticking with me:)

ps. I have my blog backed up this time...

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Mama is Always Right

I am so thankful for my Mama. She always knows exactly how to jack me up and tell me how to feel when I'm flippin' out and having a stupid pity party. She has this wonderful "snap-me-out-of-it" gift, and it works every time. I was feeling so sorry for myself today thinking that nobody understood me and that nobody even cared about how I was feeling, and blah. blah. blah. Ridiculous, I know. I have so many wonderful friends that really do love me and show it ALL THE TIME, and here I am, being stupid. Letting little things hurt my feelings. Here's the problem with that...

IT'S NOT ABOUT ME.

It really doesn't matter how people feel about me, what they do for me, how they love me, or even IF they love me. THAT'S NONE OF MY BUSINESS. What matters is that I love them unconditionally, NO MATTER WHAT. The enemy is so stinkin' crafty when it comes to this area of my life. He knows that he can't shake me in most any other area, but when it comes to relationships, he knows just what buttons to push. It's a battle for me, but I assure you it's a battle that I WIN. I refuse to let him rob me of being a blessing to the people I love the most just because he plants little emotional thoughts in my head when I'm stressed out and the most vulnerable.

I've made a lot of mistakes where this goes and I have given in to these emotions, but I always have to keep moving forward and trusting in Him. He loves me and that is more than enough for me. It is so unfair to put that load on anyone because even the VERY BEST of friends can't carry all of that. Only Jesus can.

I am so thankful for my Mama. She always helps me put things in perspective. I pray that I will always be that kind of Mama for my babies.

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I Can Handle This

This has been probably THE MOST STRESSFUL WEEK AND WEEKEND OF MY LIFE.  We have been going through a lot of changes in pretty much every nook and cranny of our life.  I know that God is moving us into greater things.  I can feel it.  I feel it in the pit of my stomach, and I feel it in my spirit.  God is BIG and He has BIG PLANS for us!

With big plans comes big change.  We are definitely being stretched to say the least.  The amazing thing is, I feel ZERO dread about ANYTHING that we have to do right now.  I won't frighten you with my "To do" list (believe me...it would definitely frighten you), I'll just say we are very busy, but I believe that God gives us the grace and ability to do ALL that He has called us to do right now.  And I believe that we are in exactly the right place at the right time doing exactly the RIGHT things.  I have an undeniable peace about all of that.

But even with all of this new stretching going on, it all just fades into the background because my heart can only think about one thing right now.  One of my youth girls.  Things are very difficult for her right now, and I know she has had a tough day today.  I haven't been able to stop thinking about her all day and all night.  This sweet girl is under so much stress, and I just want her to be ok.  Praying for her...

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Little Things

I am working on making this blog pleasing to the eyes, and I think it's coming along.  I still have a lot of tweaks to make, but I think it will get there eventually.  It would be awesome if I had all the time in the world to just sit here and play with my blog, but not in this house.  I just have to settle for a few minutes (or seconds)  here and there.  So if things look a little blurry, I KNOW, I just haven't had time to fix it.  I am usually working on my blog during the day, whenever I can manage to get past my home page without having to stop again (so thankful for my laptop!), or the wee hours of the night when everyone is in bed.  Honestly, I don't even know how any of my blog posts make any sense.  You have NO IDEA how many times I get interrupted.  I mean, it seriously took me forever just to write this, and I'm not even sure what it says because I literally haven't been able to read through it JUST ONCE without interruption, so I'm just going to post it and hope for the best!  Maybe I'll get to read it tonight after everyone is in the bed.  But you know, I just can't get upset about these little things, because they are just not that important when it compares to being able to be with my interrupting beautiful children all the time.  I really do love the life God has blessed me with!

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AHA!

God is so good to me. I don't know if this happens like this to anyone else, but most of the time, I don't realize God has answered my prayer until I'm knee deep in the thing that I prayed for.

Last night I was lying in bed thinking, and I had one of those "AHA!" moments. A few months ago, I was drawn to Proverbs 31. I read it over and over several times, and I just had this longing to be that woman. I wasn't discouraged by the fact that I don't know how to sew or do most of the things that she did, but I remember praying for God to show me what I could do to be that woman for my family. If it meant that I needed to learn how to sew, then ok, I'll learn how to sew. But I really just prayed for Him to give me insight and wisdom, and to show me what to do according to the gifts and talents He has given me, and I remember praying for Him to bring opportunities my way that would put me in that place.

For years, I have wanted to do something that would contribute financially to our home, and I KNOW God has called me to be at home with my children, so I have searched through many options, but nothing ever seemed like the right thing. A couple of months ago, the Lord literally brought an awesome opportunity to me. I love organizing and doing paperwork (I love working on our budget and paying bills), and when I was offered to do a paperwork job for a local judge that I knew personally, I knew it was right, and it comes with a GOOD monthly paycheck. I recognized that this was from God immediately, and I'm so thankful for it.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to a Thirty-One Gifts party and had a great time. A party full of totes, bags, and purses, all for the sake of ORGANIZING. Cuteness. I knew Gina, the consultant, personally from a mom's group that I'm in, and she talked about where the name Thirty-One Gifts came from...Proverbs 31. This should have been my "AHA!" moment, but nope. I never even thought about it. The next week, I just had this sudden urge to be a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts, just for the fun of it. I had SO many other things going on in my life, and I just needed something that was fun and just for me. There is nothing more enjoyable to me than cute organizing stuff. Honestly. So, I called Gina and signed up. I knew it was right, but I didn't understand why it was such a quick and easy decision for me. Until last night.

I was lying in my bed thinking, and I had that "AHA!" moment. This is EXACTLY what I prayed for! God brought into my life opportunities that allow me to contribute financially to my family, that are perfectly suited to my gifts and talents, and just to show off, one of those opportunities is named after the very scripture that I prayed!

You can't make this stuff up. God is just TOO good!

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